Patricia J. (Scanlon) Mason

Patricia J. (Scanlon) Mason, 88, died Monday, March 25, 2013, and her passing marks the end of a very special life.

Comment

Butler County Times Gazette

Writer

Posted Mar. 29, 2013 at 3:23 PM

Posted Mar. 29, 2013 at 3:23 PM

El Dorado, Kan.

Patricia J. (Scanlon) Mason, 88, died Monday, March 25, 2013, and her passing marks the end of a very special life. She spent the last six months of her life reaching out to others, travelling, and enjoying the love of family, before dying peacefully among loved ones at home.

Pat was born in St. Joseph, Mo., the fifth of eleven children of Byron and Margaret (Zirkle) Scanlon. The Scanlon family relocated to El Dorado, Kansas and Pat graduated from El Dorado High in the Class of 1942. The war was raging and with the help of a scholarship, she attended Nurses Training in Kansas City. She once said, “I knew I wasn’t cut out to be ‘Rosie the Riveter.’” Pat was a compassionate nurse. Throughout her career, she worked in labor and delivery and home health care. Her last 15 years of working were spent ministering to the elderly at the Little Sisters of the Poor – Mullen Nursing Home in Denver, Colorado. She enjoyed a long nursing career, retiring at age 70.

Pat married Charles Mason, Jr., also of El Dorado, in June 1946 at St. John’s Catholic Church. They enjoyed 56 years together, a relationship of love and mutual respect and devotion. Pat and Charles moved many times all across the states during their marriage while raising twelve children - 10 boys and 2 girls. The Mason’s lived in locations such as Wichita, Costa Mesa, Calif., Kansas City, Mo., Lawson, Mo., Niagara Falls, N.Y., Black Hawk, Colo., and Golden, Colo. After retiring, Pat and Charles returned to El Dorado to live again among family and old friends. Pat brought her good humor and her hearty laugh to all she did. She enjoyed making rosaries with the ladies at Church. She stayed active in the Altar Society at St. John’s, stayed limber with water aerobics at the Y, and stayed in touch with friends and loved ones by frequent email and Facebook use and lots of travel.

Pat was an extraordinary woman. She had a personality that was larger than life and touched many hearts. She welcomed everyone into her inner circle and never lost track of her friends. She offered sound advice to those who asked, provided comfort to those in need, and prayed for all. She had a strong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and, as a mother of twelve, Pat often asked her to bend Jesus’s ear. She was a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, friend, and colleague. To her, family was everything. Nothing symbolized this more than her annual Christmas gift to all her children and grandchildren---a calendar for the coming year with everyone’s important dates on them.

Recitation of the Rosary will be on Monday at 7 p.m. at St. John’s Catholic Church in El Dorado. A Funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m. on Tuesday with reception to follow at St. John’s Catholic Church. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the St. John’s Catholic Church, El Dorado, Kansas. Arrangements are being made by Kirby-Morris Mortuary in El Dorado.